It doesn't quite resonate the way that a "Becoming" or "Graduation" does with the thematic obviousness, does it? The "One" sounds like something that gives it a double meaning. Maybe there's a Dollhouse run facility or some similarly important thing called "Epitaph One".

I have assumed that the doll's original personality is safely stored on one of Topher's drives, and after the service is completed will be restored. Of course, who is to enforce a breach of contract dispute if the dollhouse were to renege? The handler?

getting better every week. I actually enjoyed ep 4 haven't watched last nights yet (taped it) but I am startng to catch onto the show. My dad uttered the words earlier Did I fall asleep and I replied for a little while and then ran around the house giggling like a tool.

I don't see any reason whatsoever to think that the Dollhouse has any intention of ever letting Caroline or anyone else return to their lives at the end of 5 years. The Actives have no leverage. They, for all practical purposes, don't exist anymore. They'll use them for as long as they can manage to perform for the engagements they are requested, and then they'll probably bury them in the desert somewhere. Why wouldn't they? Moral compunction? Heh. Topher's ethics? Adelle's? Dominic's?

I don't even know if I can engage the question until I see some evidence that they actually do. Seriously, you could push me over if they actually did. All having former Actives walking around out there in their old lives does is introduce a security risk -- that people that engaged them will run into them, or people whom they were used against will run into them, or people like Ballard, etc.

If (in the almost suspension-of-disbelief-crushing off chance) they did let them go... it wouldn't do much to my view of the morality of what they do. The Dollhouse renders the idea of informed consent not only moot, but kinda hilarious.

Epitaph One indicates to me part one of a two parter. This isn't like Joss Whedon tho. Usually he writes each season of a series as if the finale were a series finale. An end note. So speculation of others is probably more astute. It could also be Whedon(s) playing with us. Epitaph is usually an end note, but putting a one next to it indicates that there is no real end.. is there?

As for what happens to an Active after their contractual obligation is fulfilled, I imagine the Company lives up to its end of the bargain. Oh so it would seem. That's the game plan, but not all players on the field may opt to run that same play. DeWitt had Caroline sign the paper for a reason. Granted, there may be factions within the organization with less scruples. Therein lies more contention and more conflict. Always fun to have on a show such as this.

I'm sure that ideally, the intent is to do this: keep Caroline on disc somewhere, and after five years are up, scrub Echo's brain good so that Echo is completely gone, and then reinstall Caroline's original memories BACK into the Echo body. In theory, she'd be right back where she was when she started. In fact I bet Topher could invent five years of memories so she has no recollection of The Dollhouse whatsoever, and no reason to suspect anything curious happened to her in that time. Any scars she might have for example, would be explained away with artificial memories. They might give her some respectable amount of money for her trouble, telling her she made it on investments over the past five years. Then they'd probably have people shadowing her for the first few months, quietly monitoring her progress. A full team at first (maybe led by her handler) and if there's no worries, just one person who's job is to check in on her now and then to be sure there's no worries. That's the ideal. Smooth, you might say.

If there's one thing we know about the WhedonVerse, things never go according to plan.

There's a lot of things that can go wrong with this plan. Say for example, Adele DeWitt represents those in The Dollhouse who operate legitimately, and hope to keep things as legit as possible, so that on that day when they will inevitably be caught, she'll have enough evidence to prove this was not an unethical operation even if it is illegal. Lawrence (security chief and lead boobhead) however, represents a contingent inside the organization that knows the world just don't work that way, and we don't need to operate ethically if we're already doing things illegally. This would explain why he's game for sending them all to The Attic on the slightest sign of trouble. If Echo gets sent to The Attic prematurely, they wouldn't have to worry about Caroline's petty retirement plan.

Also, what if after five years something has gone wrong with Caroline's recorded memories? Anything from a misplaced refrigerator magnet to Agent Ballard capturing Echo before they can properly reinstate the Caroline Matrix. That could complicate matters. And even if they successfully input Caroline into Echo, what if something goes wrong? What if Topher overlooks something? He's obviously far from perfect. What if Caroline's memories don't mesh with the world she inhabits five years later? We are led to believe there were problems in her life that DeWitt said would be resolved upon her return. What if they aren't? And what if in those intervening five years, Echo becomes a personality so strong that Topher's scrubbing can't remove her? Would that not lead to the infamous Composite Event they've talked about?

At any rate, we're definitely talking about a wide range of ...interesting possibilities. Though the ride so far has been a bumpy and uncertain one, personally I hope for all our sakes, there is an Epitaph Two. However, I hope you forgive me. I am not achieving a Man Reaction regarding that possibility. Not yet. Maybe the shower's a little too cold.

Aww, give both of them a chance eyeboogers - if I was going to write Joss off after one episode, I'm afraid after Buffy's "Family" he would have been dead to me. Also, eyeboogers is the best name ever.